The Scientism Debate: A Battle for the Soul of Philosophy?

In this paper, I report the results of an empirical study, which was designed to test the following hypotheses: (H1) Many philosophers find scientism threatening because they see it as a threat to the future of philosophy as a major in colleges and universities; (H2) Many philosophers find scientism threatening because they see it as a threat to the soul or essence of philosophy as an a priori discipline. My results provide some empirical evidence in support of H2. These results are also in line with the results of other empirical studies that point to a methodological shift in philosophy from the armchair to the laboratory.